I must be dreaming again.
The brown and white she-cat took a few pawsteps forward into the starry forest. After halting abruptly and lifting her head to scent her surroundings, her slow pace steadily developed into a brisk trot. The icy tang of the supernatural forest coated her lungs in a cold, invisible blue frost. The she-cat could see her misty breath coming in controlled gasps from her mouth below her. She thought it strange that the forest of ancient warriors could feel so much like the cold, desolate Leafbare, when outside of her dreams the world was a newly beginning Greenleaf. Suddenly, after leaping a small stream, she came to a stop in front of a large granite rock that jutted from the ground before her.
"Welcome Springheart."
Springheart looked up. Precariously balanced on the very tip of the rock was a gray tabby tom. His sightless eyes seemed to pierce her like a wildcats fangs.
"It's good to see you again, Jayfeather." Springheart meowed. "Why have you called me here?"
Jayfeather glided gracefully from the rock. Springheart took a step back as her mentor's mentor landed in front of her, glowing frost springing up from under his feet. He waited until it disintegrated into the air before he began his message.
"I am sorry to tell you this." Jayfeather's expression was solemn. "StarClan has a new prophecy for ThunderClan." Springheart twitched, but quickly steadied herself.
Pale moonlight shone on Jayfeather, his starry pelt shimmering.
"Water will sound for seasons, Wind will wash away blood, and darkness will encase it all in hope…"
Jayfeather breathed.
"The underground secrets will come alive."
Springheart watched the former ThunderClan medicine cat fade away into darkness. Springheart took a desperate step forward, her eyes filled with worry.
After realizing that Jayfeather had gone, the medicine cat began to pad away into the forest, head low and tail drooping, while meanwhile, in the shadows, a small figure had witnessed the whole thing, and it darted off into darkness.
---
Chapter One
"Lightningpaw! Darkpaw! Soundpaw!"
Three young cats stood proudly beneath the highrock, their recently groomed pelts reflecting the white light of the Greenleaf sun.
The first cat, a brown tabby tom with an unusual birthmark on his forehead, surveyed the mass of cats that cheered the apprentice names of him and his friends. His days as Lightningkit were over, and he was about to be assigned to a mentor as Lightningpaw.
Atop the highrock was Badgerstar, ThunderClan's strong leader, his amber gaze sweeping over his Clan to land upon Rustfur, a young reddish tom. "Rustfur." He began. Rustfur stared upward. "Are you prepared to take on the challenge of mentoring an apprentice for the first time?" Rustfur nodded. "I am."
"Then I am proud to assign you your first apprentice." Badgerstar's deep mew rumbled in his throat. Rustfur, recently turned warrior, looked up at his leader, eyes sparkling. "Darkpaw, please come forward."
Darkpaw, the black and gray she-cat, stepped up to her new mentor and touched her nose to his. "May his loyalty and skills in battle be passed on to you."
The cats of ThunderClan again cheered her name.
"Lightningpaw, please come forward."
Lightningpaw almost stumbled as he padded out. "I now assign you as the apprentice of Swiftfoot. May her cunning and knowledge of the forest be passed on to you." Lightningpaw touched his nose to hers.
Lightningpaw and Darkpaw glanced back at their friend. The gray tabby tom didn't look like he was proud of himself, or he was badly attempting to feign it. Why isn't he happy? He's an apprentice now! Lightningpaw's thoughts were cut short as his friend stepped forward. The blue markings around his blind eye shone silver in the sunlight. His other eye just stared blankly as he gave an uneasy glance around the camp.
"Springheart." Badgerstar called out the medicine cat's name. The golden she-cat emerged from the shadows of her den, some of the moss that hung from it running through her mildly ruffled fur. Lightningpaw noticed the same nervous expression as Soundpaw's. He exchanged an uneasy glance with Darkpaw as they watched their friend be assigned a mentor.
Soundpaw's gaze flicked around the camp, to his mother and father, to the other apprentices, and then to Badgerstar, who's strong amber gaze held with his one uneasy blue eye. "Are you ready?" The tom murmured so only Soundpaw could hear him. Soundpaw's mouth twitched, but he gave a gruff nod and turned his head toward Springheart.
"Are you prepared for the tasks ahead of you, Soundpaw?" She mewed.
"I am." The words spilled from his mouth like the mountain waterfall.
"Then I am proud to take you on as my apprentice."
Badgerstar lifted his head. "May Springheart's knowledge and kindness to all be passed on to you."
The three friends were met with another choir of cats cheering their names, though their prideful feelings had been disturbed by Soundpaw's strange mood. He's not usually like this. Lightningpaw had his thoughts grow over the crowd. He remembered how his friend was always so carefree, but for the past moon or so, he'd been acting odd. A moon ago I remember him messing around with me and Darkpaw when we were silly little kits. But one night he went to sleep and woke up all serious and has been like that ever since! It's almost like he saw something in his dreams that night…
Before he could think of how to help him, Darkpaw padded over to him and gave him a friendly push to the chest with her head. "Hey!" He awkwardly balanced himself on the soft ground. Darkpaw's voice was soft in his hearing. "Stop doing that! You look like Soundpaw all edgy and solemn looking like that." Lightningpaw's green eyes flashed, then he nodded his head toward where Soundpaw was sitting alone next to the camp entrance. "Don't you want to know what's up with him?" Darkpaw sat down and began licking her paw. "Go on, I'm listening."
"I think that we might be able to ask him before we actually begin the apprentices vigil in a little while. You know, now we have a little time before we go quiet together…" He trailed of for a moment, but a glance from Darkpaw told him he was getting off track. "Anyways, I think we should ask him about it. He's always been a bit strange, but he's just not been himself lately, and its got me worried." Darkpaw finished grooming and stood up. "I'm kind of worried too…but he might not tell us."
"Worth a shot."
With that, the two cats padded over to the gray tom sitting by the entrance.
"You know, we don't have to sit vigil immediately after." Darkpaw's mew caught Soundpaw by surprise. He turned a sightless eye at her. "I know. I don't have anything better to do though."
"You could always talk with us though. We're friends, remember?" Lightningpaw purred. "We could have been littermates if we didn't have different parents."
Soundpaw could sense that the two familiar faces were dwelling on something that they wanted to say, but were having trouble doing so. He lifted his head slightly and faced them.
"Look, we only have a few more moments of time to talk. The sun is setting. Just tell me was you want to tell me before it comes."
The two cat's cut their surprise short, and with that began to ask him about why he'd looked so on edge lately, and why Springheart looked like him too.
Soundpaw blinked slowly, then began to speak after a long sigh.
"I don't have enough time to explain right now." He murmured. "If you meet me in three days in the forest, out on patrol of course, I will try my best to tell you."
The two cats nodded, still concealing their shock and other questions for later. The time had slipped by like a snake through the thick grass.
As the new tradition stated, the three newest apprentices took their places at the front of the hollow, the sun lowering itself behind the trees and into it's cosmic cradle where it's position in the sky would be replaced by a modest incomplete moon. The gathering was the other night, and it looked as though the moon was disintegrating because of a small claw wound in it's side. The three cats listened to the sound of their clanmates retreating to their dens for the night, some whispering to them "good luck" and "See you in the morning."
The new apprentices merely flicked their tails in response, the strong moonlight through the trees reflecting the shadows of leaves on their shining silver pelts, their eyes blazing with the thought of what might lay ahead of them in this new life that they were given.